Click through the gallery to see this week's helping of the best the universe has to offer. And if you need more when you’re done but can’t wait until the next one, here’s the entire collection.
Space Photos of the Week: A Galaxy Breakin' All the Rules
Space photos of the week, January 17–23, 2016.
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<a href="http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/hubble-unveils-a-tapestry-of-dazzling-diamond-like-stars">ASA, ESA, and J. Maíz Apellániz, Acknowledgment: N. Smith</a>
SPoW-Jan22-03
Trumpler 13 is a glittering star cluster that contains a collection of some of the brightest stars seen in our Milky Way galaxy. Because the cluster is only 500,000 years old, it has one of the highest concentrations of massive, luminous stars. The small, dark knot left of center is a nodule of gas laced with dust, and seen in silhouette. The blue-white stars are burning their hydrogen fuel so ferociously they will explode as supernovae in just a few million years. The combination of outflowing stellar “winds” and, ultimately, supernova blast waves will carve out cavities in nearby clouds of gas and dust. These fireworks will kick-start the beginning of a new generation of stars in an ongoing cycle of star birth and death.
